tag: darkfield inspection

Wafer inspection, the science of finding killer defects in chips, is reaching a critical juncture. Optical inspection, the workhorse technology in the fab, is being stretched to the limit at advanced nodes. And e-beam inspection can find tiny defects, but it remains slow in terms of throughput.
So to fill the gap, the industry has been working on a new class of multiple beam e-beam inspectio... » read more

The IC industry is making a giant leap from planar devices to a range of next-generation architectures, such as 3D NAND and finFETs. But it’s taking longer than expected to ramp up these new technologies in the market. And the challenges are expected to mount for the next round of chips.
It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact issues with 3D NAND and finFETs. On the manufacturing front alo... » read more